Bitcoin made another run at $70,000 on Wednesday but failed to hold the level, slipping back to roughly $68,300 in early Thursday trade after dipping as low as $67,700 overnight — a near 5% roundtrip from intraday high to low.
The push marked the strongest attempt yet to reclaim $70,000 since the Feb. 5 crash, though price action once again stalled before confirming a breakout.
Under the surface, altcoins carried the session. Ethereum climbed 8.5%, Solana rose 6.9%, and Cardano surged 10.8%. Dogecoin added 8.3%. By contrast, Bitcoin’s 4.3% gain was one of the more modest performances among the top digital assets.
That type of breadth typically signals renewed risk appetite, with traders rotating into higher-beta tokens once confidence builds that the worst of the forced selling has subsided.
“The wave of forced selling is starting to clear,” said Daniel Reis-Faria, CEO of ZeroStack. “Altcoins are outperforming again and increasingly leading bitcoin, which suggests capital rotation.”
The rebound in crypto unfolded alongside a subdued reaction to quarterly results from Nvidia. While the chipmaker beat earnings expectations, enthusiasm faded quickly. Nasdaq-100 futures slipped 0.3% after the release, and Nvidia shares gave back most of their initial gains to trade only marginally higher in extended hours.
Despite remaining the world’s most valuable public company, Nvidia flagged concerns about overheating in parts of the artificial intelligence economy, tempering what had been a multi-session recovery in tech equities.
Broader macro conditions continue to present challenges for crypto. Trading firm Wintermute noted that digital assets have weakened alongside technology stocks as capital shifts toward defensive and hard assets. Meanwhile, Matrixport highlighted stagnant stablecoin supply growth as a significant constraint on bitcoin’s upside potential. On-chain analytics provider Glassnode expects liquidity conditions to take at least six months to meaningfully improve.
Near-term indicators offer mixed signals. Data from CryptoQuant shows selling pressure easing on Binance, supporting the case for a tactical bounce. However, Bitrue warned that a decisive break below $60,000 could open the door to a slide toward $50,000–$55,000, or even $47,000 if liquidations accelerate.
For now, the market remains caught between a short-term relief rally and a still-fragile medium-term structure — and bitcoin’s inability to secure a foothold above $70,000 underscores that tension.
